Inside a black and white bungalow styled with modern Australian design

See how Charlie Cameron of Lottie is Loving turned a heritage black and white bungalow into a contemporary family home inspired by her Australian upbringing...

So, you’ve taken a tour and fallen in love with our very own video producer’s vintage-styled Tiong Bahru apartment, now step inside something completely different — contemporary Australian style in a Singapore icon: the colonial black and white bungalow. In this instalment of Honeycombers Interiors Addict, we headed to Tanglin for a peek into stylist, photographer and blogger Charlie Cameron’s amazing abode.

The brains behind lifestyle blog Lottie is Loving and co-founder of creative community The Assembly Hall, Charlie chills out with her family inthis bright and spacious home in Tanglin. The light-filled space is the perfect canvas for her to play with the contemporary, clean aesthetic she loves, and she’s injected gorgeous artworks and designer pieces that instantly put you in a calm and cosy mood. We talked to Charlie about her sense of style and how she approached turning a heritage property into a place of her own, but let’s start with a video tour…

You have quite a clean, modern style: how does this work with a heritage home?Even though it’s black and white — and a rather traditional style of home — my personal style is more contemporary. So for me, this house shows the marriage of those two different styles — taking the bones of a property that is beautiful, old and has this great scale and proportion, while injecting a contemporary feel into it.

Charlie and her furry companion. Photography: Darissa Lee for Honeycombers

Living in a black and white is a dream — tell us about it!Living in Singapore, we’re always striving for some sense of home. In Australia, we’d live in a house where there’s a garden for the kids to run around. So when it came to moving here, we decided to see if we could get a black and white house, because obviously, you have to bid for it. We think it’s awesome to live here, and have the opportunity to be the custodian of such a historic building.

Clean and classic style in the downstairs living room. Photography: Darissa Lee for Honeycombers

What inspires and informs your style?Personally, I feel it’s really hard to be separated from the style of the country you grew up in without incorporating that particular style to your home. I’m always drawn to Australian design, but there are snippets in the house that dip into Scandinavian style, like the string shelving, for that minimalist Scandi look. Predominantly, my style leans towards Australian design.

How do you keep your personal style compatible with a kid-friendly home?When it comes to decorating homes and having a family, people sometimes feel that the two live in separate universes. But I don’t come from that school of thought. I feel that most successful interiors are the most genuine and authentic. So if your style is to use pale rugs or something like that, then you should go for it while teaching your children to not mess things up and be respectful of their surroundings.

Can you let us in on where you source your pieces?There are loads of pieces you still can’t get in Singapore, like the classic Thonet cafe chairs (produced by TON) for the dining room. Grafunkt has started to stock a small range here, but I’ve sourced mine from Australia. When I make a decision to invest in pieces and the items are not available here, I make the purchase in Australia and have them shipped here. Same goes for all of my artworks, as the artists I follow are mostly Australians.

What do you look out for when shopping for interiors and art?People should be looking out for what they need, especially in a design that they find truly beautiful. You need to try marry those two things together because you want function to meet style. Also be mindful of scale and proportion, making sure that you have space to accommodate the objects that you’re buying for your home. My advice: Mark things out and be patient. I waited until I was satisfied before making purchasing the dining table. Same goes for art: I put tape on the walls, wait and visualise.

Charlie runs Lottie is Loving from her home office. Photography: Darissa Lee for Honeycombers

What are your favourite pieces in the house?The artworks. I do love that owl piece [in the living room]. It’s carved paper, so when you get up close to it, you can see that the artist has carved his paint into it and carved the paper to create texture within the painting. It’s kind of remarkable and beautiful.

I also love theNormann Copenhagen lights in the dining room. They are quite a new purchase, so I’m in love with them and I love their whiteness. I do really love a kind of calming white aesthetic, so living in a black and white house is really good for me. But despite a clean white palette, I don’t mind a bit of colour — you’ll see this in the study, where I’ve got little pops of colour!

Cam Khalid

An internet lurker who consumes grime with a side of neo-soul while at it. Discovering global sounds aside, she has a thing for documentaries, cats and pop culture chats. When not busy reppin' SG in the UK (and vice versa), you’ll find her dancing like Ed Sheeran's Britannia High audition — Google it.